82 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-47TH PARALLEL. 
it is wonderful liow they continue so numerous. Except in the very lowest ground, overflowed 
by tides, there is no part of Santa Clara valley where they cannot he seen at any time, 
scampering over the ground and watching at their burrows. Where it is practicable, the 
farmers combine in the commencement of the rainy season and build dams in the water courses, 
so as to overflow the land and drown out the squirrels. 
Length 10 inches; tail 7 inches. 
SPERMOPHILUS LATERALIS, Rich. 
Say’s Striped Squirrel. 
Baird, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 312. 
I shot a single specimen of a striped squirrel, near the eastern base of Mount Adams, in 
August, 1853, where it was in company with the common Tamias, which swarms in those pine 
forests. Its large size and something peculiar in its general appearance induced me to shoot it, 
and I have now no doubt that it was this animal. I unfortunately lost the specimen, and did 
not meet with another. It was excessively fat. 
APLODONTIA LEPORINA, Rich. 
Sewellel. 
Baird, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 353. 
The “Sewellel” of Lewis & Clark, appears to be an abundant animal in some districts 
west of the Cascade mountains, hut from various causes I never could obtain a specimen. At 
the time of their visit to the country the Indians used the skins as clothing, and as it required 
a large number of skins to make an ordinary sized blanket, the numbers of the animals caught 
must have been great. It was cnught by stone fall-traps, hut with what bait I do not know, 
probably some root. The Indians assured me that none were found nearer to the coast than 
the Cowlitz valley, hut as they have been obtained at Astoria, the statement was not altogether 
correct. They seem to prefer the soft alluvial river bottoms, where they are said to burrow, 
and probably thus follow down the Columbia. Now they are rarely caught by the Indians, as 
their skins are not bought by the Hudson’s Bay Company, except when passed off on a “ green” 
clerk as muskrat skins. Of their habits I could learn little. An old Indian hunter, who is 
now a shepherd in the employ of Dr. Tolmie at Puget’s Sound, told him that he had frequently 
seen them running over the snow in the Nisqually valley, so that they probably do not 
hybernate. A young man who had kept school at Astoria told me that the children sometimes 
caught them about the school house, where they burrowed, and that they could be caught by 
running after them, as they did not run fast. When taken they did not offer to bite, and ate 
vegetable food readily. The specimen sent from there was found drowned in a tanner’s vat. 
CASTOR CANADENSIS, Kuhl. 
Beaver. 
Baird, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 355 
The heaver is abundant in many of the streams of the wooded regions, and is said to have 
become more so since trapping has become unprofitable. Near the coast they live in the close 
vicinity of farms, hut are very rarely seen. I have often watched at evening, hoping to see them 
at work, hut they never appeared. The only one I ever obtained was while descending the 
Chehalis river, where, about sunrise, one of the Indians saw it swimming close to the hank, with 
